In marked contrast to his criticisms of Chinese higher education, Huang praises American universities--and Harvard in particular--for encouraging students to question their teachers and books, since this philosophy of education develops an inquiring mind.
"Given that as the goal, American education is superior," he says. Education in mainland China has a different goal: to promote moral sensibility in students. Huang believes a university could instill moral virtue without neglecting its teaching mission, but given a choice between the two approaches he favors the American system, wherein "students are graded for their reasons, not for their conclusion."
Nonetheless Huang remains critical of some aspects of American education, cautiously agreeing with Secretary of Education William J. Bennett that college degrees do not serve as indicators of knowledge.
Battling the Core
Huang endorses the philosophy of Harvard's Core Curriculum, but he has encountered many bureaucratic problems because of it. He says he gave up on fulfilling the complicated distribution requirements after his freshman proctor could not explain them. Thus Huang never took enough Humanities courses, and he only recently received permission to graduate when administrators allowed him to count Historical Study B-56, "The Russian Revolution," as a Humanities course. "I guess they don't want to hassle most seniors," he says.
Huang enjoyed many departmental courses, especially his sophomore tutorial, but says he hated Core science courses and Government 30, "Introduction to American Government." He characterized that required course as "very trivial."
Huang also raps the Government department's excessive requirements, especially a rule that requires a third reading for any thesis receiving two high grades. That dictum, according to Huang, cost him a higher thesis grade by allowing a reader unfamiliar with China to make "ignorant and irresponsible" criticisms of his work. He says he probably would concentrate in Social Studies if given another chance.